The Association of Huaorani Women of the Ecuadorian Amazon is a private non-profit organization created through resolution 825 of the National Council of Women ("CONAMU") in Ecuador on January 7, 2005. The aim of the organization is to look for alternatives to improve the quality of life of the family and the Huaorani community.

The Huaorani community consists of 2,500 inhabitants, including men, women, children and the elderly. This community resides in 3 Amazon provinces: Pastaza, Napo and Orellana.

We are living in a situation that involves the presence of oil companies, loggers, missionaries and others; this presence has provoked great conflicts, generated violence in our territory, and made our land one of little control and order.

The Ecuadorian government has done nothing to enforce its regulations with regards to colonization, exploitative logging, illegal hunting, the theft of genetic lineage or medicinal plants. The government has also failed to regulate the actions of the oil companies. These companies, through their missionaries and anthropologists who lack respect for our families, have divided us and violated our rights.

Executive Decree 552 of January 29, 1999 created the Tagaeri/Taromenani Untouchable Zone. The proposal was not clear as to what the effective workings of the state and the organizations that promoted this proposal would be in order to give security to our villages and especially to those who have decided to remain free from outside contact (the outermost "savages").

The impacts caused by the oil companies have provoked great changes inside our territory. They have induced the presence of the Quichua and colonists each entrance of which is an invasion of Huaorani territory; as well as changes in the ecosystem and especially the natural resources which are the source of our subsistence.

Oil extraction has caused many sicknesses. Medical studies have revealed that a high percentage of the population effected by this extraction suffers from Hepatitis B, which was introduced by employees of the oil companies. Children are affected by infections of the skin similar to scabies, and in other cases cancer, leukemia, stomach pains and other ailments.

ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE

Since the highways for oil extraction have been opened there have been great impacts including landslides and soil erosion. High environmental damages are caused everywhere in the path of the road. The gases and noises emitted the burners are unbearable, and when combined with the sun emit a terrible stench.

The presence of roads facilitates the cutting and sale of wood by settlers, which leads to the destruction of forests that were useful for the harvesting of fruits, fibers, and other things that are of great importance to those living in this area. All of this induces climate change within our territory and will proceed to a world-wide level with the destruction of the forests and the Amazonian cultures.

YASUNI NATIONAL PARK

This park is located in the Napo and Orellana Provinces between the Napo and Curaray Rivers, and extending between the Yasuni, Cononaco, Nushino, and Tiputini Rivers. Its altitude oscillates between 300 and 600 meters above sea-level. In the beginning, the park had only 679,000 hectares, but at the present time 982,000 hectares are protected and managed by the Environmental Ministry.

In 1996 a 16,000 hectare "zone of protection" was demarcated for the Huaorani, whose historical terriory was 2,000,000 hectares. As a result of the creation of Yasuni National Park in 1979, with a surface area of 670, 730 hectares, the Huaorani people have 1/3 of their historical territory. In 1989, UNESCO declared the area a "Biosphere Reserve" with the aim that oil operations would be kept outside the borders. Nevertheless, at the present time the Ecuadorian Government is not respecting the borders and has handed over part of the territory so that Petrobras and Encana can begin to initiate petroleum extraction.

In 1990 the Huaorani territory is legally declared to be 612, 560 hectares. In 1999, 700,000 hectares were considered to be the Tagaeri – Taromenane untouchable zone.

BIODIVERSITY

The tropical rain forest consists of a high index of endemism which has been conserved since the end of the Pleistocene, between 22 to 13 thousands years ago. It houses the greatest number of tree species per hectare in the world. It is considered one of the worlds last reserves of genetic diversity, making it an area with potential for scientific investigation and tourism.

The majority (77%) of the park is solid ground all-year with a great variety of habitats, while 9% is seasonally flooded forest with complex and varied ecosystems. With respect to fauna, 500 species of birds have been identified including, guacamayos, parrots, toucans, harpy eagles, the paujil, which are endangered and greatly liked by the Huaorani. There are 173 identified mammals within the park with an estimated 200, which is 57% of all known mammal species in Ecuador. Some species have disappeared due to contamination and hunting, such as the Chorongos Monkey (Lagothrix lagotricha), the Arana Monkey (Ateles belzebuth); aquatic species such as the Manatee, the Giant Otter, and the Pink Dolphin have also become locally extinct. There are also 100 species of amphibian and 62 species of snake.

Underneath Yasuni National Park, there are massive oil reserves.

CULTURES

The culture of the Huaorani follows the hunter/gatherer economic model with a limited amount of agriculture. Contact with the evangelical missionaries of the Summer Institute of Linguistics in the late 1950s has brought about great social, cultural, economic, and political changes have occurred. Some groups have broken off years from the Waorani, like the Tagaeri and Taromenane, who remain even today uncontacted by outsiders. They have become legendary beings and strange enemies to the enemies, and they are as strange to us as they are to whites or cowodi.

Some companies have imposed on us hunting prohibitions in the name of conservation, which changes us into dependents on the food of the companies; creating political submission and destruction of our culture, values, and customs which puts our way of life at risk.

ALTERNATIVES TO DEVELOPMENT

As an association, we intitiated our work with the development of a strategic plan, in which the most important areas for work as an association were determined, and this way we will be able to contribute with a grain of sand to the development of the Huaorani community.

Our vision has determined that the Huaorani community should be strong and organized, with professional Huaoranis that defend our territory, so that we are able to live in an environment without contamination appropriate for the development of tourist projects. It should be noted here that tourism is the third largest industry in the country. We consider an alternative to confronting the oil companies which in which the involved communities are made aware that they should not continue negotiating with these corporations. This way we will be able to insure a good future for our children.

POLITICAS

As AMWAE we have the following policies:

To recover the ancestral Huaorani culture, which in reality has been lost through the different presences that exist in the territory.

To inform the communities that they should not continue to negotiate with oil companies and loggers.

To educate and prepare Huaorani professionals in areas such as education, health, and local development; so that they are the leaders of the change move towards a favorable Huaorani community.

To develop productive projects for Huaorani art and tourism.

To work towards organzing with similar association and to obtain support for our projects and programs.

To execute and manage projects that promote the development of the Huaorani community without losing or changing the ancestral Huaorani culture.

HEALTH

With regards to health, we will work in coordination with ONHAE for the development of Huaorani health professionals who practice traditional medicine first and use western medicine as an alternative, so that this millenia-old custom is not lost.

EDUCATION

We have several education centers that fail to adapt and thus our children are not able to have a good education. The education level is only half of what they need, hardly any finish primary school and even fewer finish secondary. The education is said to be bilingual, in many communities the teachers are mestizos, Shuar,and especially Quichuas. Very few are Huaorani.

As an association, we want to fortify the knowledge and education of those Huaorani who have studied to be those who will share their knowledge with the young of our community. We are also looking to establish agreements with other organization to support those Huaorani engaging in higher learning so that these students may be the ones that initiate the fight for a better community.

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

We want to undertake several projects that will allow us, in a suitable form, to make party to the benefits that we are given by the Amazon forest.the most of our natural resources. We want to make plans for handling the species that we utilize for our sustenance like the production of crafts and the construction of houses, etc. The idea is not to consume everything we have now but rather we must protect these things for future generations so that they may be party to the benefits the amazon forest gives us.

The improvement of small farms with cultivation of palms and other trees used for the construction of houses, fruit trees, and other nutritional crops, is one AMWAE's priority tasks this year.

An important area for AMWAE is the fortification and organization of the association to be prepared for the solution of different conflicts that we must face as an organization of women. Our subjects of work are leadership, administration, the rights of women and the family, equality and gender, communitarian development, internal and external conflicts, the creation of small companies, the negotiation of programs and sustainable projects, human relations, etc. We want to be enabled and organized to defend the integrity of our Huaorani community.

With these goals we formed an association through which we wish to demonstrate the strengths and abilities that we as women have as well as our capacity to defend our territory and our natural resources which are the pillar of subsistence for us the Huaorani. We wish to develop alternatives that will permit us to assure our children a future that is based on the thought, way, and spirituality of the Huaorani.